Sunday February 23

The reading of our text. We're going to actually jump back a few verses from last Sunday, just so we can see the entirety of the context of what Peter is saying. So he begins like this, "But false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. Their condemnation is from long ago." Hold on just a minute." We're lost." This is how... Oh, I have a copy. Oh, okay. That's what's happening. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll try to leave it alone. Wait, I've got it now. "Bringing upon themselves swift destruction, and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation is from long ago, is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare sin, but cast them into hell and committed the gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment,

not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a heraldess with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them, day after day he was in his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, be with us as we dive into this text. There is so much that is happening in the depths of your word here, and it is both a deep and abiding warning, but also a wonderful and encouraging truth. I ask that in your grace, that you would turn aside sinners from their sin, to see your righteousness

and that you would call them home and that you would take the struggling and the hurting and those who feel like they're walking through the darkness and difficulty and that you would encourage them with the truth that you are the rescuer of the godly. So be with us this morning. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our text this morning, if you couldn't tell, as we read through it, has a little bit of everything. You've got false teachers, you've got sin, judgment, hell, floods, fire from heaven, a really startling statement that we'll get to in a few minutes about righteousness, and then we end on this picture of the God who both rescues and brings punishment and judgment. And we began this morning with a warning to God's people, a warning of danger. And that's where we began in verse 1. Not just in Peter's day, but a spiritual battle going back through the history of God's people and going forward into the future of God's people, of false teachers and destructive heresies.

And in this text we hear about immorality and greed, and then there is a very clear description of the judgment of God. And in that judgment right there is hell and chains and gloomy darkness, a flood that escalates to fire, and perhaps a really startling and remarkable statement. But the heart of our text this morning is this: that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. And so in this text we see the God who both rescues and judges. And this can be a little overwhelming because there is a lot happening in a lot of different directions. One of the wonders that we'll see in a minute is it's woven together with such beautiful and glorious pictures throughout this of both God's salvation, but also a terrifying warning of God's judgment.

And so I want you to imagine just for a minute a road running through a valley. And you're on this road and you're driving up and down over small hills, around corners, over streams, through this dark forest, and as you're driving down this road, you can't really see ahead of you because the road twists and turns and dips and dives and goes around corners and through rocks and around trees. And so you never really know what is ahead of you. But if you climb to the mountains that surround this valley, you can look down from those mountains and you can see every twist and every turn, every dive of this road. And so texts like we find ourselves in this morning can seem a little bit overwhelming. There's sort of a surprise around every corner from angels to floods to Sodom and Gomorrah to the fact that somehow Lot is considered righteous.

And so we're going to focus on verses 4 through 9 this morning, but I want us to try to see the entire road with its twists and turns before we dive into the specifics. So what we're going to do is we're going to look sort of at the text as a whole, and then we'll walk through Peter's argument here. And what you have in these verses through 4 through 9 is a conditional statement. And so probably most of us are probably more familiar with conditional statements if we label them as if-then statements, right? One thing leads to another. So if this is true, then this is the result. If this happens, then that will happen. And these things express, conditional statements express relationships between things that are dependent upon each other. And so if you're a parent or grandparent and have ever read that book, right, if you give a mouse a cookie, right?

So if you give a mouse a cookie, then he's going to want a glass of milk to go with it. And if you give the mouse a glass of milk, and then you just go on sort of ad nauseum with if this happens, then this happens, and then that happens, and the next thing happens, that's what Peter is doing. This is a big conditional statement, but it's not an if-then statement. It's an if-if-if-if-then. Statement. So Peter lays out four scenarios. If God did not spare the angels, if he did not spare the ancient world, but he also preserved Noah, if he did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah, but he saved righteous life, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly and keep the wicked under judgment. And so the entirety of this text from verses four through eight is just a big list of things that lead ultimately to either the salvation or judgment of God.

And it's not just leading us through an argument, it's leading us through Genesis to this conclusion, that God knows how to rescue the godly from trials and keep the unrighteous under punishment. And so the heart of this text is both the salvation and judgment. And it's finally woven together, and there is a level of complexity to the text, not necessarily a complexity that it is hard to understand, but rather a weaving together of historical events that directs us to both God's salvation and to God's judgment. Sometimes if you've ever looked at a piece of art, and as you have stared at this painting, you begin to see more and more details, and more and more shadows, and more and more of the picture the longer you look, or if you've stood and gazed out over God's creation.

You see the beauty as a whole, but then you begin to see various parts that are all so beautiful that when put together make up the whole. This text is woven together in such a way. One of the ways you can see it is that Peter, as he makes this through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that it's all about judgment and rescue, and what Peter will do is move back and forth. From the angels to the flood, there's judgment, but then he rescues Noah. There is judgment, but he rescues Lot. And there's not just a contrast between the reality of rescue. There's a contrast of sin and righteousness that goes so deeply. So we begin with the angels who are supposed to be messengers of God, proclaiming his goodness, but they aren't. And in the midst of a profoundly dark and unrighteous world, a man named Noah is actually a herald of righteousness.

So it's not just a contrast between the end result of these evil angels and the end result of righteous Noah. It's a contrast and a juxtaposition of the ones who are supposed to be proclaiming God's goodness aren't, and the one who is in the midst of the fire, but also the salvation of God escalates from being saved from water to being saved from fire. There's even a parallel between the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah in their sexual sin, which is absolutely horrific that we see in the book of Genesis, but also later in the prophets will point us to the fact that it's not just sexual sin, it's this deep greed and selfishness that ultimately takes what we want, whether that's sex or whether that's money and then the pictures. In Peter's day, we just read are overflowing with sexuality and greed.

It's not just a parallel between judgment and salvation. Peter is drawing a parallel between the sins of Sodom and the sins of the false teachers in their greed and in their selfishness and their sensuality. And depending on how much detail we want to go into in Genesis 6 and the angels, there's a bit of a similar parallel there as well. This is a tale Peter is telling us that is as old as time. And while this text is woven together wonderfully, it's also a little bit uncomfortable. Angels, the ancient world, Sodom and Gomorrah, examples of judgment, and none of them are without judgment, especially when that judgment is derived from us. When judgment begins bluntly and clearly, right, it's uncomfortable. But here's the reality. Warnings should be uncomfortable. It's like when I wake up in the morning, people are like, "We heard your alarm going off, and it was so loud."

It's like, "Yeah, because if it's not loud, I'm not getting up in the morning." The same is true for these warnings, that you look at it and you say, "It's harsh, and it's dark, and it's filled with scary judgment." It's not just true, but it's trying to wake you up. It's trying to say, "This is serious." And I want you to understand that this was thoughtless, threatening. The purpose of this warning, ultimately, is to save. To save those who are going in the same direction as the world, or Sodom and Gomorrah, but also to save the faithful. So they see that brokenness is not the final word. In fact, Peter's going to say, in the very next chapter, he'll say this, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises, some count slowness, but is patient toward you,

not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance." This warning, in part, is to bring people to repentance. And in each of these examples, one of the wonderful things about how this text is put together, you can see that this is meant to be understood. And so, Peter, the inspiration of the spiritual language of his day, but he also goes into some of these areas that the people and these false teachers are dealing with, in terms of Jewish mysticism, or pagan belief. And he pulls some of these details into this account. Because what Peter is doing is saying, "Just believe in this." Or you believe this, doing this. Like Paul, as he stands on Mars Hill in Athens, and he quotes Greek poets, Peter is doing much the same in order that his audience would understand direness and the salvation of God.

And so Peter will reference in the beginning a book that's not in the Bible, not accepted by either the Jewish or Christian communities as the Word of God, but it's likely this was a popular book. And false teachers in the church by quoting and promoting it. And so Peter uses it as a picture of God's judgment. And when he talks about hell, he uses the Greek word Tartarus in 41st chapters of Job, but also any Greek who was a pagan who heard this would understand this picture of inescapable darkness. And so Peter, in the all-surpassing truth of God, which overcomes all the false prophecies and all of the false counterfeit books of the Bible, God in his providential power uses those to display the truth. We also learn more about Noah. He's called the preacher of righteousness.

We get some extra details about the life of Lot. And Peter's purpose in all this is to help us see clearly. And this text shows us this morning that our theology matters. And maybe you think, "Well, does it really matter what I believe?" The answer is simply yes. The results of this judgment that Peter lays out in such graphic detail at its heart comes from a denial of the return of Jesus. That people are saying, "Jesus isn't coming back, so it doesn't matter what I do." And they're running into sexual sin. They're running into greed and desiring. And it all comes from a broken theology that their wrong actions are a symptom of the fact that their theology is wrong. So let's take from the overview a deeper look at a text that's both a deeper and difficult warning and a wonderful encouragement.

And so as we thought about sort of maps and driving through a forest and seeing the waypoints, I want us to stop this morning at a couple of places with an eye toward objections about the judgment and the salvation of God. And so what Peter does in this, as he lays out this truth, is he's also answering objections. It's part of the wonderful weaving together of the Word of God. And the objections, I think, go like this: Does God really have the power to judge? Does God really have the power to truly save? So there are some running away from God going, "I don't think He can judge me." And then there are some Christians in their darkness going, "I don't know if He can save me." And so Peter is going to answer with the power of God to both judge and to save. And then there are those who go, "Well, I don't know if He sees me."

Right? There are people who are in the wrong, running away into sin, going, "I don't think He's going to catch me." And then there are those who are suffering in the darkness going, "I don't know if God sees me. I don't know if He's listening to me." And then there's a third group who's like, "I don't think that God can save me." I hear about salvation and I look at my life and I'm pretty broken. And so Peter answers these objections, and the first way he does it is he directs us to the power of God. And simply this, God is powerful enough to do what He has said. And it seems that the false teachers, as we have just said, have this idea that God can't save me. God can't judge them. Look at what he says in the very next verse, in verse 10.

"Especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority, bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones." And Peter says this, that part of the sin that leads to judgment is this idea that God, what are you going to do about it? You can't do anything about it. And so Peter begins his argument with the power of God. Listen to what he says. "If God did not spare angels when they sin, but cast them into hell," the Greek word here is Tartarus, "and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness, to be kept until the judgment." Peter's point is that angels are powerful. They're stronger than humans, right? Both in the Psalms and the book of Hebrews, that God has created man a little lower than the angels. And Peter says, "Look at your strength. Are you as strong as an angel?"

And the answer, I think, even with the Jewish mystics would be like, "No, we're not strong as an angel." And Peter goes, "If you're not as strong as angels, and God can judge angels, what do you think that means for you?" If God is able to bring judgment on the angels, you're not going to be a problem. This is not like, if you ever fought a kid, and I don't mean like, "I'm going to go out and fight some children." But you're roughhousing with the kids, and one of them comes running over and says, "I'm going to tackle you." And you really just need one arm when they're little. It's like, "I can pick you up with the arm. I can throw you with the arm. I can block you with the arm." The picture here that Peter is painting is that you are not stronger than angels, and you are certainly not stronger than God.

That you can't push God away. And so he is warning them that in their arrogance, and their rebellion against the authority of God, that they will not win this fight. That God locks up the angels that are sinners, but notice this. Committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. And he goes, "Go all the way back." If this does refer to Genesis 6, or even before, Peter said he locked them up then, they are still locked up now, and they are still locked up for us now. That God is stronger and more powerful. And while there is a warning about God's judgment and power, there is also encouragement. This church is discouraged. His first letter said, "Hey, there's going to be all kinds of physical trials. Fiery trials." The second letter is like, "Hey, there's going to be spiritual trials too."

You have false teachers. You're going to have immorality running rampant. He compares them later to pigs going back into the mud. Dogs returning to their vomit. And so there are some maybe in the church who feel like they are overpowered. And it seems very much that this is another David and Goliath situation, where Goliath is the false teachers. And the true Christians in this church are the small, fearful Israelites. Remember that Goliath? Standing, mocking. People saying, "Send your best warrior to fight us. And you win, but if we win, you will be our slaves." And Sally Lloyd-Jones, in her book, Jesus Storybook Bible, sort of puts some words in Goliath's mouth in his mocking, says, "We'll rip your heads off and eat you one toast." This picture of this giant going against God's people. And they're afraid, and here they are facing not just the giant of persecution, but the giant of spiritual controversy.

Remember how God deals with Goliath? He sends a young shepherd who fights that giant on behalf of God's people and saves them. And God has sent to this church another shepherd who has fought the giant, not a physical giant, but the giant of sin and of death, and has given his life, triumphed over death and the resurrection to save these people. And God is reminding them through Peter that the insurmountable enemies facing God's people, God is stronger. And so if you are walking the path of rebellion against God, you must understand that God is stronger. And if you are in the midst of struggling in the darkness of the valley, you must understand that God is stronger. And he knows how to rescue the godly. And then we go to the knowledge of God. God knows the difference between the righteous and the wicked.

The false teachers are coming in quietly. They're despising authority. And it's not just what are you going to do about it in regards to God's people or God's power. There's likely an attitude that God can't tell the difference. It's like when you're speeding, and I've never done this, but you're speeding down the highway, and you're in a big group of people, and somebody in the car goes, "Well, you're going really fast." And you're like, "What are they going to do? Pull us all over?" That's the picture here. These people are, so many of them involved in this sin, that they're almost looking at God going, "What? You can't get all of us?" And Peter goes, "I beg your pardon." And look at what he says. "If he did not spare the ancient world." Not just a few, but he brings judgment on the entire world in the flood.

Also, go to the next verse. "If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes." And what Peter is saying, that if you are walking in rebellion against God, you must understand that God sees your sin, no matter how much you try to hide it, or disguise it, or normalize it, which is the trend of our day, the excuse that everyone is doing it will not stand before the Almighty God. The God who flooded the world, the God that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, there is no "What is he going to do?" Judge us all. The answer is "Yes." Like, that's what he is going to do. But if you're struggling, in the midst of the dark valley, maybe like Elijah, I'm all by myself. The only one in my family. I'm the only one in my work.

It seems like I'm the only one standing up for righteousness. The only one following Jesus. Notice that in this, that God sees, in the midst of the entire world, he sees the righteousness of Noah, in the midst of the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah. He sees Launt. God knows how to rescue the godly. Let's take a look at stop number three. What about my broken life? Ever had somebody just say something just absolutely crazy out of the blue? And you kind of look at them and do a double tag and go, "Did I just hear what I heard?" Listen to this. "And if he rescued righteous Lot." So my first question to Peter is, do you know anything about Lot? If he rescued righteous Lot, does Peter, have you ever met Lot in the Bible?

Lot is Abraham's nephew. We find the background to some of this account in Genesis 18 and 19. And Lot is known for making pretty bad choices. In Genesis 13, he chooses to live in the lush, rich valley with the beautiful towns that are filled with sin. And he gets to those, and it says in Genesis 13:13, "The men of Sodom were wicked, and the great sinners against the Lord." And this is where Lot, when he's given the choice of anywhere to live, he goes, "Let's go to sin town." Literally. And when he gets there, he doesn't leave. And in verse 8, we see that it does bother his soul, but obviously not enough to leave. And so we find this picture in 2 Peter 2:8, where Peter says that this righteous man lived among them.

Here is Lot's righteous again, day after day, tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. And so he lives in a place that is a torment to his soul in the midst of sinners. And in Genesis chapter 19, which is sort of the turning point right before the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, these strangers who are in town, they're in the square. Lot says, "Why don't you come to my house?" "No, we'll sleep in the square." Lot says, "No, come to my house." And in Genesis 19, these men are in his house, and all the men of the city, young and old, show up at Lot's house. And the English Standard Version translates it, "Send them out so that we may know them." And I remember being so traumatized in fourth grade when our Bible teacher says, "That means to have sex with them."

These guys are not like, "Hey, let's meet the new people." They're literally looking to use these strangers in homosexuality. Do you know what Lot responds to that by, "Hey guys, I got some daughters. Why don't we send them out instead?" So not only has he chosen the wicked place, but he tries to send his daughters out to this group of men to save them. We might argue, and some try to argue, the custom of the day means hospitality is important. But I don't think it's important enough to throw your daughters to a sexually charged mob. Additionally, we find in verse 14 that Lot has betrothed his daughters to men of Sodom. Not only does he see the sin of the city, and it says that his soul is troubled, but he also inextricably ties himself to it by engaging his daughters to men who are in the city.

And when he offers these men, their fiancés, to escape, they laugh at him like it's a joke. And in part, there's a call to Peter's readers here saying, "Don't laugh at God's judgment as if it is a joke." And so here is Peter going, "Righteous Lot, that righteous man who chooses a city full of sin, tries to give away his daughters to a mob and betrothes them to men who are in this city." How is it that Lot can be righteous? Lot is righteous in the same way that Abraham is righteous. Paul says this, "For what does Scripture say?" Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And in this moment in Genesis 19, Lot hears the offer of salvation. And he believes that it's not just an intellectual acknowledgement, but Lot obeys.

Albeit we see somewhat reluctantly and with some bargaining. But when the salvation of God is held out to Lot, he trusts in it and it is counted as righteous. And what's remarkable is that Lot is righteous in the same way that we are righteous. That we hear the promise of God's salvation, and we hold on to that promise with everything. And just as Lot hears, believes, and is brought out, you and I hear, believe, and are brought out from judgment. And in this, we find this picture: that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. I just want us to learn a quick lesson from Lot. In Lot, there is a great wonder that God saves, and a great hope that He saves the righteous who don't always look very righteous.

But there is also a cautionary tale. Lot can see the evil around him, and it torments his soul, but it still has an impact on his life. He has picked up the habits of his city, not by intentionality, but by proximity. He thinks in a certain way because he's been influenced by his culture, and he acts in a certain way because he has been influenced by his culture. The right attitude toward sin is not how close can I get and still be okay, but to flee from sin and run toward God. There is a warning and a hope in the account of Lot. The warning is to take God seriously. His sons-in-laws laugh at the judgment of God and experience it. His wife turns back in regret and desire for that city and suffers the consequences.

The one who is saved is the one who takes hold of the salvation of God and trusts Him for hope. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. Peter has said that the God who triumphs over evil angels, who can separate the righteous from the wicked, the one who takes the righteous, who don't always appear to us like righteous, but they are. He can take you, and He can rescue you. There's also a warning to not take this lightly, to not treat yourself as if you're stronger, smarter, or if you can hide your sin, but that the judgment of God is serious. Let's pray. Father in heaven, may you encourage our souls this morning with the fact that you know how to rescue the godly.

May you warn us as we sometimes lose our focus that judgment is real and true. That you would call the unrighteous to repentance, and that you would give your church a burden to share the good news. That like Noah, we would be heralds of righteousness in a world that is dark. That you would help us to be lights reflecting people, not to ourselves, but to yourself.